Have you fallen in love with Henry’s sweet little face like I have??
Yesterday I introduced my vision with our Fedorables and helping families bring their kiddos home.
Now meet our first family.
Henry’s family.
(Written by Gretchen, Henry’s mama)
###
My husband and I are both in our 40’s and have two grown children, Ben who is 26 and Vivienne who is 17 so we considered ourselves past adopting at this point in our lives, we just wanted to serve the Lord in the capacity that He had called us to. We minister to the youth at our church and last year, summer 2010, God put it on our hearts to take a team of young adults to China to serve at Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village, an orphanage for special needs children. Two years prior we had taken a team to England and were amazed to see the transformation in the hearts of those who go on these short term missions trips, not to mention the work that the Lord accomplishes there.
While at Shepherd’s Field we not only fell in love with the children, we fell in love with the entire ministry and its people. Everyone is so selfless and focused on the children’s welfare. Each day a different child won my heart and Charles and I were both amazed at the fact that none were self conscious about their special need. Each are so special that their “special needs” simply fade away.
While spending time with the school aged children we met Henry. He was born with a missing right eye and has limited vision in his left. I was drawn to him each day while doing crafts and playing, constantly amazed at how self-sufficient he was, not to mention how smart and completely funny. We asked about advocating for him financially so that he could have surgery on his left eye so he would not loose his vision completely. By the time we left China our hearts were invested and we started hearing the call to adopt Henry, but the cost and commitment is so tremendous that we could not fathom it being possible.
After we got home, the more we prayed the stronger we felt the Lord was confirming that we bring Henry into our family. Its hard to argue with God…all of our reasons not to adopt seemed so completely selfish and shallow in the light of the reasons to adopt. Its especially hard to argue with God when He has the ability to transform your heart and mind and by the end of the week there are no reasons left. We started looking into adopting in September and have felt the Lord’s hand every step of the way. We are so excited as we walk this path and are amazed as the Lord provides everything we need at just the right time. Henry turned 6 on January 2nd and we are thrilled that this summer he will have a family….and we will be blessed.
[…] In addition to the fedoras, the snowboarder lids are very popular around these parts. (My kids wore them all weekend in Mammoth – a post on our trip coming soon!) Also, Kara-Noel is donating part of the Fedorable proceeds to help bring little Henry home from China. You can read about Henry here. […]